Friday, May 11, 2012

Why You Shouldn't Hire Anyone In The United States Of America

Barack Obama has has sent Congress a ridiculous "To Do" List, a ragtag collection of feel-good proposals to help the economy, help the unemployed, and mostly to help Washington bureaucrats.

All of them would be unnecessary if he'd just do the right thing and resign in disgrace.

Here's #1 on the list:

Reward American Jobs, Eliminate Tax Incentives To Ship Jobs Overseas: Attract and keep good jobs in the United State sby passing legislation that gives companies a new 20 percent tax credit for the cost of moving their operations back to the U.S. Congress should pay for this credit by eliminating tax incentives that allow companies to deduct the costs of moving their business abroad.

If Congress doesn't vote in favor of this stuff, they'll be known as the "do-nothing Congress". They're already the "do-nothing Congress". They haven't passed a budget in more than three years, and for two of those years, they were controlled by Democrats. Since 2010, the House has been Republican, but the Senate has been Democrat. And it looks like the Dems still run the show.

Enough about that. Here's something from the world of reality. This is what it's like for an employer in Obama's America:

My employer, Jukt Micronics, runs wood, metal and plastic shops in Texas. I run a warehouse and shipping operation for them where my employees receive, assemble, and transport products made overseas.

The total product mix is probably 60% manufactured in the U.S., 40% imported from outside of the U.S.

Before we started outsourcing, we had about 300 employees in the U.S.

After we started going overseas to purchase the easy stuff, we grew to 600 U.S. employees. It's funny how that works, isn't it?

We've now dropped to about 500 U.S. employees, primarily because of the Thief In Chief in the White House.

The guy who runs our wood operation, who I'll call "Woodchuck", is a great person. He is a wood god.

About a week ago, Woodchuck got a complaint about a nighshift employee sleeping on the job.

Woodchuck checked the video cameras, and sure enough, the dude was driving to remote corners of the wood shop on a forklift, kicking back and catching some serious naps.

Woodchuck fired him.

The employee, who I'll call "Snoozy", filed for unemployment compensation, saying that he was unjustly terminated.

The case actually went to a Texas Workforce Commission hearing. We were armed with the videos, and expected an easy victory.

The TWC lifer asked Woodchuck if he ever posted signs in the factory about NO SLEEPING ON THE JOB, or NO SLEEPING ON FORKLIFTS.

Woodchuck replied that he had not. (He also doesn't have signs about NO SHITTING ON THE BREAKROOM FLOOR, and NO RAPING EMPLOYEES ON THE SLIDING TABLE SAW).

Because of this glaring oversight we lost the case. Jukt Micronics will have to pay for Snoozy's unemployment compensation for up to 99 weeks.

I'll go to my grave believing that the ridiculous number of people collecting unemployment is a campaign strategy. Increasing the duration of unemployement compensation is a campaign strategy. (I've lost some compensation claims that I know I'd have won five or six years ago. One instance involves firing someone for Indecent Exposure. There were multiple witnesses to the crime. And Jukt Micronics now has to pay the perverted sonofabitch unemployment for 99 weeks because I supposedly threatened the guy.)

If Barack Obama wants to bring jobs back to the U.S., there are some simple ways to do it. He could make the U.S. a less hostile place for employers. He could stop rigging the tax code in favor of people who do things that he likes. He could resign.

When I get to work today, I'm putting signs up about NO SLEEPING ON THE JOB and NO SLEEPING ON FORKLIFTS, just to be safe. And I'm going to explain why.

Anyone who hires someone in the United States is taking a huge, huge risk.

Congrats. You are quite possibly the first person to ever look it up. I followed the scandal closely when it first blew up, and was fascinated. If you ever get a chance, check out the movie "Shattered Glass", which has the kid who played the young Darth Vadeer in the lead as Stephen Glass. Good flick.